Typing Markup Tags Ending in />

[Nathan Sokalski]

I often use self-closing tags (such as <br/>) when creating an ASP.NET
application. However, when I enter them in Visual Studio .NET 2005, it
automatically inserts a space before the />. In most cases this does not
bother me, but for tags such as <br/> that I usually do not use any
attributes with I prefer not to have the extra space. I there a way to
prevent Visual Studio .NET 2005 from inserting the extra space before the />
at the end of the tag? Thanks.

 

[Mark Rae]

I there a way to prevent Visual Studio .NET 2005 from inserting the extra
space before the /> at the end of the tag?

Do you *really* want your code to be non XHTML-compliant and non
cross-browser compatible...?
http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/xhtml_howto.asp

 

[Nathan Sokalski]

Is <br/> really non XHTML-compliant? Visual Studio .NET might try to create
<br /> instead, but it doesn't mark my tags with a warning or anything. I
didn't think getting rid of the space before the / was breaking the rules of
XHTML. Is it?

 

[Mark Rae]

Is <br/> really non XHTML-compliant? Visual Studio .NET might try to
create <br /> instead, but it doesn't mark my tags with a warning or
anything. I didn't think getting rid of the space before the / was
breaking the rules of XHTML. Is it?

It is, in the sense that the XHTML specification quite clearly specifies <br
/>, not <br/>

Some browsers e.g. Netscape don't understand <br/>

Your call...

 

[Jani Järvinen [MVP]]

[ Excessive newsgroup list trimmed in this reply. ]

Nathan,

I didn't think getting rid of the space before the / was breaking the
rules of XHTML. Is it?

No need to worry, it is OK to both include or leave out the space before the
"/>" characters.

From the XML 1.1 specification (XHTML is based on XML) published by W3C:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/#sec-starttags

....you may find definition #44, which defines an empty tag like <BR> as
follows:

EmptyElemTag ::= '<' Name (S Attribute)* S? '/>'

Here, "Name" is the name of the tag, i.e. "BR", and "S" stands for a white
space, like a space or tab (one or more). At the end, there's "S?" and
followed with the "/>" characters. The question mark after the "S" is an
occurrence indicator, and means that the white space can exist, or not exist
at all.

So, both "<BR/>" and "<BR />" are correct as far as the specification goes,
but the latter might be a bit easier to read (subjective) whereas the former
takes little less space.

Happy New Year!

--
Regards,

Mr. Jani Järvinen
C# MVP
Helsinki, Finland
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.saunalahti.fi/janij/

 

[Martin Milan]

I often use self-closing tags (such as <br/>) when creating an ASP.NET
application. However, when I enter them in Visual Studio .NET 2005, it
automatically inserts a space before the />. In most cases this does
not bother me, but for tags such as <br/> that I usually do not use
any attributes with I prefer not to have the extra space. I there a
way to prevent Visual Studio .NET 2005 from inserting the extra space
before the /> at the end of the tag? Thanks.

You wouldn't want to do this. It is merely following the XHTML
standards.

Martin

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Is <br/> really non XHTML-compliant?

No, it is valid XHTML.

 

[Mark Rae]

It is, in the sense that the XHTML specification quite clearly specifies
<br />, not <br/>

Some browsers e.g. Netscape don't understand <br/>

Your call...

Just to be *absolutely* clear on this:
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#prohibitions

Read paragraph C.2

 

[Jay B. Harlow]

You wouldn't want to do this. It is merely following the XHTML

standards.

Umm...

According to the W3C Markup Validation Service http://validator.w3.org/ both
<br/> and <br /> compliant XHTML 1.1!

Remember the w3.org is the group that defines the standard.

 

[Jay B. Harlow]

Do you *really* want your code to be non XHTML-compliant and non

cross-browser compatible...?
http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/xhtml_howto.asp

Unfortunately w3shcools.com is *not* the authority on internet standards.

Remember that http://www.w3.org is the group that defines the standard. I
would rely on w3.org for the authority on internet standards. Then rely on
other groups, such as w3shcools.com, for quirks (pun intended) that specific
browsers exhibit.

According to the W3C Markup Validation Service http://validator.w3.org/ both
<br/> and <br /> are compliant XHTML 1.1!

In fact the XHTML 1.0 Recommendation uses <br/> (no space) in their
examples! (heading 4.6 Empty Elements)

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/

Further depending on how old the howto page is, it may be totally
immaterial! What percentage of users, of the OP's web site, actually use
Netscape. What percentage of their users, use a version of Netscape that
exhibits the problem.

 

[Jay B. Harlow]

Nathan,
As Herfried suggests <br/> is valid XHTML.

I normally use the W3C Markup Validation Service http://validator.w3.org/ to
verify compliant XHTML.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Jay,

I normally use the W3C Markup Validation Service http://validator.w3.org/
to verify compliant XHTML.

I prefer Christoph Schneegans' validator because it provides more accurate
results (it validates against XML schemas):

XML Schema Validator
<URL:http://schneegans.de/sv/>

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

[ Excessive newsgroup list trimmed in this reply. ]

Nathan,

It is one of the last things I would make a point from so I am not sure if
it is in it.
(That does not mean that you should do the same as me).

If you are working in Source View and you have the workbar HTML selected
than there is a dropdownbox where you can select what kind of HTML code you
want use, maybe it is between one of those those.

Cor

 

[Jay B. Harlow]

Thanks for the link, I've saved a copy for future reference.

--
Hope this helps
Jay B. Harlow
..NET Application Architect, Enthusiast, & Evangelist
T.S. Bradley - http://www.tsbradley.net

 

[_AnonCoward]

:
: I often use self-closing tags (such as <br/>) when creating an
: ASP.NET application. However, when I enter them in Visual Studio
: .NET 2005, it automatically inserts a space before the />. In
: most cases this does not bother me, but for tags such as <br/>
: that I usually do not use any attributes with I prefer not to
: have the extra space. I there a way to prevent Visual Studio
: .NET 2005 from inserting the extra space before the /> at the
: end of the tag? Thanks.

I believe this goes back to some older browsers (earlier netscape
browsers, if memory serves) that would not render <br/> or <hr/>
correctly without the interveneing space character.

Ralf